


Forgiveness

by susieboo



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bittersweet, Bittersweet Ending, Flowey Redemption, Forgiveness, Game Spoilers, Gen, Genderless Frisk, Houseplant Flowey, Loneliness, Lonely Flowey, Non-Binary Frisk, One Shot, POV Third Person, Pacifist Frisk, Post-Canon, Post-Pacifist Route, Redemption, Sad, Sad Frisk, Spoilers, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Tsundere Flowey, floweypot - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6979120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/susieboo/pseuds/susieboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Almost three years after the monsters have been freed and have returned to the surface, Frisk returns to Mount Ebott. There's still someone else that needs to be saved.</p>
<p>[Oneshot. Spoilerfest. Post-Pacifist.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forgiveness

If Flowey hadn't stopped trying to count the days a long time ago, he'd have known it had been nearly three years. Three years ago, the human had defeated him, freeing all the monsters. As soon as the barrier was gone, monsterkind had fled the Underground once and for all, making their way up to the surface that had once rejected them.

He remembered the stories of what the war had been like. What the humans had done. Flowey was not one to believe that people could change. He'd figured they'd all get eaten _alive_ up there. Or maybe he just hoped. He waited, eagerly, for the survivors to come flooding back into the Underground that was their prison, cursing themselves for being so foolish for ever having tried to escape. Yes, that would be a fine day. It would only be a matter of time, he was sure.

But nobody came. Flowey remained beneath the ground, alone, as monsterkind remained on the surface. Life went on. And Flowey was alone, gazing up at the hole which the human fell through all that time ago. 

The human had been his next hope - that one day, they would grow bored of peace, of happiness, of victory. That one day, they would reset. And the game could start again, the monsters returned to the ground. And Flowey would get another chance at achieving his goals. But that day never came, either. It appeared the human was actually content with the world they had created. That they were genuinely happy up there, with their friends, with everyone so damn _happy_.

How disgusting.

He sighed, thinking of all the ways he'd murder the human and their friends if he were to ever see them again. He'd spent the first few months moving around the Underground, seeing if there was anything he somehow missed before, but now, he tended to spend all his time in the spot where the human had first fallen. 

Alone.

Until one day...

Frisk lowered themselves into the mountain slowly, aided by climbing equipment. Flowey spotted them right away, but said nothing. He didn't want to be disturbed. Somehow, not even the idea of tormenting the human seemed appealing anymore. Frisk was taller than when he'd last seen them. Heavier, too. Probably living fat off of Toriel's smothering affection, he thought with disgust. Finally, Frisk reached the ground, and almost instantly, Flowey realized they had come to speak with him.

Great.

Frisk moved towards him intently, with a very determined look on his face, not showing even the slightest sign of fear or hesitation, which made Flowey's insides wrench a bit. How dare they not cower in fear after everything he'd done to them? Didn't they remember what he was capable of?

"Howdy," he finally said, trying to force the same faux-cheerfulness he'd exhibited all that time ago. "It's me, your best friend, Flowey the Flower." Somehow, he couldn't quite attain the same level of sugary malice.

"Hello," Frisk said quietly. "Did you miss me?"

His face twisted from a forced grin to a horrid scowl, trying to put the appropriate amount of terror into them. Frisk didn't flinch. "Why would I miss an idiot like _you_?" he spat, though deep down, he did miss Frisk. Sort of. It was hard not to miss the only exciting thing that had happened in the Underground in thousands of loops.

"I don't know." They shrugged. "I just thought maybe you had gotten lonely down here."

"...Frisk, why are you here?" he asked. "Why'd you bother coming back down here? What? Were you hoping to find _Asriel_?" He morphed his face into that of his former self. His sweet, kind, innocent, idiotic self. Frisk did flinch a bit at that, Flowey noticed. Grinning wickedly, he brought his face back to normal. "He's _gone_ , Frisk. All that's left is little ol' me, and I have no reason not to _KILL Y_ \--"

"I know," Frisk said, cutting him off. "I didn't think you'd still be Asriel. That's not why I'm here."

"Then... what? If you're here to keep me company - because you pity me..."

"I don't."

"Then what _is_ it?"

"I want to help you," the human said, trying for a small smile. Flowey suddenly noticed they were carrying a small flowerpot and shovel. "I talked to the others about it, and, well... Well, Undyne and Sans weren't really in favor of it, but Papyrus and Toriel agreed that maybe there's still--"

"If you say 'still good in you'..." Flowey said, a vine moving to wrap itself around Frisk's wrist, tugging them forward. Startled, Frisk dropped the flowerpot, stumbling as Flowey dragged them towards him, so the two were face-to-face. "If you say 'there's still good in you,' I will _KILL_ you."

Frisk was silent for a moment as the two locked eyes.

"...Why?" they finally said.

" _Why_?" He had to admit, the question was a surprise to him. "For the same reason I do anything. I'm _bored_."

"If you came with me," Frisk said slowly, "you wouldn't be bored anymore."

"I don't know what you're trying to do here, but it's not going to work."

Frisk kept talking. "You could live with us on the surface, see all sorts of new things, meet new people... you wouldn't be stuck down here."

"The last time I was up there, they killed me. Humans aren't of any interest to me."

"I thought you said you weren't Asriel."

"I'm _not_ ," he spat, finally letting go of Frisk's wrist, the vine falling away. It wasn't worth the effort. "You know what I meant."

Frisk sighed, reaching for the flowerpot again. "Flowey. Come with me."

"Why are you doing this?" Flowey asked once more. "Why? After all I did, you can't possibly still believe, even in that idiotic brain, that there's any chance I could - I could... I don't know. 'Be good.' That's what Toriel always said, right? 'Be good, okay?' Yeah, never worked out too well for me."

"Maybe you just need some help. And some friends."

"I don't need anyone. And I don't have friends, remember? I only care about one person, and they're gone. I'm not even sure I could really call them a friend at this point. But I never got bored of them!" He let out a raspy laugh. "That's as good as it'll ever get."

"You don't know that."

"I don't have a SOUL, Frisk. I can't love. No amount of _frolicking in the meadows_ with you and your disgusting friends will change that," Flowey said, rolling his eyes. "Get lost before I change my mind about not killing you. Although..." He flashed Frisk another sharp-toothed grin. "Maybe _that_ would get you to reset."

Frisk didn't move. They just looked away, looking contemplative. Finally, they said, "I almost did. Once. I almost reset."

Flowey gaped at them. He hadn't expected that. Or at least, he didn't expect them to _admit_ it.

"I was bored," Frisk said. "I thought about it. Sometimes - sometimes I can force a reset, even when I'm not dying. If I think really hard, I could. So I tried it. Almost. But then... I saw you."

"...What."

"Usually when I reset, I heard... a voice. I think it was Asgore's voice, but this time... that time, I saw you. And you told me not to do it. You said that everyone was perfectly happy. That there was only one threat left. Me. You told me that the only thing threatening everyone's happiness was my power to reset. You said that I had been fighting against your power to rip everyone from their happiness... and that if I reset, I'd be doing the exact same thing. And I realized you were right. You said... you said, 'Let them go. Let everyone be happy.'"

"That wasn't _me_ , you idiot," Flowey hissed. "You were hallucinating, or something. Maybe it was too much snail pie."

"It could be you. Someday."

Flowey said nothing.

"...Flowey," Frisk said, trying again. "You don't have to be miserable and alone anymore."

"Yeah, now I could be miserable and surrounded by idiots." Flowey sighed, turning to glare at Frisk. "How could you forget everything I did? Forget what I did to you, enough to even consider bringing me up there?"

"I haven't forgotten," Frisk said. "None of us have. To be honest, Undyne's made it clear she doesn't want you alone in a room..."

Flowey snorted. That sounded about right.

"...But I _do_ forgive you. Maybe it's time to forgive yourself. Or let everyone else forgive you, too."

Flowey looked away, thinking it over.

"...Fine," he finally said. "But I have three conditions."

"Name them."

"You don't tell Asgore and Toriel who I am. They'd just try to bring _him_ back."

"Fine."

"And you won't expect me to suddenly grow a conscience and learn to love or some crap like that. It won't happen."

"I don't believe that, but I promise not to be disappointed if it doesn't happen."

"Great. And finally... no more resets."

"No more resets," Frisk smiled. They came closer with the shovel and flowerpot. "...You do realize if you try to kill any of us, Undyne will make you into a salad, right?"

Flowey rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Really feeling the forgiveness, here."

"Forgiven, not forgotten. Remember?"

"...Fair enough," Flowey said, finally relenting. He allowed Frisk to put him in the pot with some dirt, before heading back up the mountain, towards a new life. Whatever that meant.

As he and Frisk made their way upwards, leaving the Underground behind forever, Flowey couldn't help but allow himself to think that maybe, between Frisk's determination and his own boredom, maybe this wouldn't be a completely lost cause, after all. And with the loss of his powers and the promise of no more resets, there was nowhere to go but up.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I always loved Floweypot AUs, so I had to throw in my little contribution. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you leave kudos and lots of awesome comments!
> 
> I hope what Frisk says about being able to 'force a reset' makes sense. Basically it's when the player quits without saving in the middle of the game and goes back to their last reset point - not when they reset because they died in battle. And, of course, them seeing Flowey is when you reboot the game after a Pacifist run and Flowey tells you not to.


End file.
